Ethnicity and Nationalism in Afghanistan

Keywords

Ethnicity, ethnic groups, nationalism. violence, clientelism

Countries

Afghanistan

Objectives

The Afghan society, which is segmented along various cultural lines, has been torn by war for more than 20 years. With the collapse of the Communist regime in 1992, the ideological framework within which combatants were mobilized and claims to state power expressed changed considerably. In the eyes of almost all policymakers, journalists and researchers the ideological opposites of Islam and Communism were replaced by ethnicity as the dominant template of the conflict. What this approach ignores is the fact that, despite the ethnicization of the conflict, the ethnicization of the Afghan masses failed. Although ethnicity became a political-military force to reckon during the 23 years ongoing Afghan war, the significance of ethnicity as basis of political articulation and social organisation remained strictly limited. Hence ethnicity has been opposed by competing identities as well as by strategic considerations of the war factions.
In addition this project examines the discourse of power, which resulted in establishing an ethnically defined nation and an ethnic categorizing of political conflict. Of special interest is the creation of ethnic myths and stereotypes as well as the emergence of contradictory ethnoscapes – ethnic bound spaces of perceptions. Furthermore, the project analyses how this ethnicized discourse has been reflected in an ethnic stratification system of the society and in unequal access to political and economic resources controlled by the state. Against this background this project discusses the opportunities and obstacles how to cope with ethnicity in an adequate way within the political transformation.

Methodology

Qualitative Research

Team Members

Conrad Schetter

Partner Institutions / Funding Organizations

Publications

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2004): Ethnicity and the Political Reconstruction of Afghanistan. ZEF Working Paper 3.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2003): Ethnizität und ethnische Konflikte in Afghanistan. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag. 641 pp.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2003): Die Territorialisierung nationaler und ethnischer Vorstellungen in Afghanistan, in: Orient. Zeitschrift des deutschen Orient-Instituts, 44 (2003) 1, S. 75-97.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2003): Mediale Ethnisierung am Beispiel Afghanistan, in: Die Brücke 130 (2003), S. 36-42.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2003): Ethnicity and Political Reconstruction in Afghanistan. Paper presented at the symposium: State Reconstruction and International Engagement in Afghanistan  Organized by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Development Research Centre, London School of Economics, ZEF, Bonn. 30 May – 1 Jue 2003.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2003): L'etnofederalismo non risolve il puzzle afgano, in: Limes. Rivista Italiana di Geopolitica 2 (La Guerra Continua) (2003), S. 109-117.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2003): Coping with Ethnicity, in: National Development and Security. Quarterly Journal (Rawalpindi), 11 (2003) 4, S. 1-19.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2002): Paschtunwali oder Islam? Kultureller Wertewandel im Afghanistankrieg, in: Interkulturell, (2002) 3/4, S. 82-109.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2002): Der Afghanistankrieg – Die Ethnisierung eines Konflikts, in: Internationales Asienforum, 33 (2002) 1/2, S. 15-29.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2002): Türkler ve Afgan Savaşi (1979-2001), in: Hasan Celāl GÜZEL, Cem OĞUZ & Osman KARATAY (Hg.): Türkler. Vol. 20 (Federe ve Muhtar Türk Cumhuriyetleri) (2002), S. 717-722.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2002): The Turks and the Afghan War (1979-2001), in: Hasan Celāl GÜZEL, Cem OĞUZ & Osman KARATAY (Hg.): The Turks, Vol. 6 (Turkish World) (2002), S. 690-696

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2002): Misunderstanding Ethnicity in the Afghan Conflict, in: ISIM Newsletter 9, S. 12.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2001): Die Schimäre der Ethnie in Afghanistan, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung 249, 26.10.2001.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2001): Die gefährliche Ethnisierung eines Konflikts, in: Frankfurter Rundschau 252, 30.10.2001.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2001): Völker eines Landes, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 262, 11.11.2001.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2001): Il mito della guerra etnica, in: Limes. Rivista Italiana di Geopolitica. Quaderno Speciale “Le Spade dell’Islam”, (Dicembre 2001), S. 27-32.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2001): Afghanistan in der ethnischen Sackgasse, in: Südasien 4 (2001), S. 7-10.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (2001): Die Ethnisierung eines Konflikts, in: Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten 28 (Afghanistan, Krieg, 2001.), S. 10-13.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (1999): Die Rolle von Ethnizität im Bürgerkrieg, in: Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten, 17 (Afghanistan) (1999), S. 8-11.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (1999): Ethnizität als Ressource der Kriegführung, in: Conrad SCHETTER/Almut WIELAND-KARIMI (Hg.) (1999): Afghanistan in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Frankfurt a.M.: IKO-Verlag (Schriftenreihe der Mediothek für Afghanistan Bd. 1), pp. 91-108.

SCHETTER, Conrad, (1997): Ethnizität und ethnische Konflikte in Afghanistan, in: Wilhelm LÖWENSTEIN (Hg.): Beiträge zur zeitgenössischen Afghanistanforschung. Bochum (Institut für Entwicklungsforschung und Entwicklungspolitik. Materialien und kleiner Schriften Bd. 163), pp. 51-68.

Workshops / Conferences